Cell Phone Service in Subway Will Expand to Brooklyn

The recently announced trial program to introduce cell phones to underground subway stations will be expanded to include all stations throughout the boroughs – including Brooklyn – by 2016, an MTA spokesman said.

The project, according to the published reports, will begin tomorrow at three large stations on 14th Street (Sixth, Seventh, Eighth avenues) in Manhattan and one on 23rd Street (C, E trains). At the formal announcement, expansion plans will be detailed by MTA spokespersons.

Service, however, is limited to AT&T and T-Mobile subscribers, not Verizon, and doesn’t include time in between the stations. Therefore, someone won’t be able to get on the train at 14th Street, pick up his or her phone, and keep talking until the train reaches 23rd Street. This decision was basically made based on cost factors.

Transit Wireless, the company behind the proposal, signed a contract with MTA New York City Transit last year, a development covered in the Eagle in October 2010.

“For too long the subway system has been an information black hole in our lives, and bringing cell and Wi-Fi service to stations is one of the ways we are working to change that,” said Jay H. Walder, MTA chairman and CEO, at the time.

The service, it would seem, is ideal for someone who gets off the train and can’t wait to tell their significant other that they’re on the way home, or for someone who, despairing of a 10-minute wait for the train, decides to kill some time by talking on the phone.

Cell phone service, of course, has been available on elevated and surface-level lines, including most of the lines in Brooklyn south of Prospect Park, since the phones became popular.